Letendre and Poloni Win OVGA Senior Championships

The Perth and Gatineau Golf Clubs played host to the Ottawa Valley Golf Association’s Men’s Senior Championships on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 18-19. The Women’s one-day Senior Championship was also held at the Gatineau Golf Club on Wednesday, July 19th.

Carole Letendre Wins Women’s Senior Championship

Under a bright sun on a picture-perfect day the OVGA Women were first off the tee at the Gatineau Golf Club. Included in the twelve senior participants were four Women who have through the years won eleven OVGA Senior Women’s Championships. At the beginning of the day Hyland’s Diane Dolan (2007, 2012, 2013, 2016) and Brockville’s Teri de Luis (2005, 2008, 2010, 2014) had won four championships each while Algonquin’s Carole Letendre (2004) and Carleton Golf & Yacht’s Bonnie Wolff (2015) had each won one senior championship.

Those numbers changed when Algonquin’s Carole Letendre came off the course with a brilliant score of one-under-par 70. Included in her round were four birdies and three bogies. When asked about her round Carole responded – “I’m so happy with how I played today. I had not been playing well this year and I was thinking this would be my last year of competition golf. But, I was relaxed today and I was hitting the ball well. I was surprised with my game today and I was also very relaxed playing with Judy Collins.”

The OVGA divides the field in two based on handicap indexes to determine players in the Janet Matthews “A” Trophy and the Mabel Hees “B” Trophy fields. Brockville’s Teri de Luis (76) finished first in the “A” field and Carleton Golf & Yacht Club’s Bonnie Wolff (80) finished second. Tied for third place with scores of 81 were Hyland’s Chantale Belley and Sand Point’s Christine Lafortune.

Carole Letendre finished first overall and also first in the “B” field. Tied for second place with scores of 78 were Hyland’s Judy Collins and Larrimac’s Roxanne Gagne.

Based on the low numbers entered in the Women’s Senior Championship, OVGA Officials will be sitting down to try and assess this lowest entry in a number of years.

Mike Poloni Wins Men’s Senior Championship

Mike Poloni (Photo: Joe McLean)

Playing in the final men’s group on the final day of the Men’s Senior Championship at Gatineau, Greensmere’s Mike Poloni posted a score of one-under-par 70 to go with his even-par score of 71 from Perth while Golf Quebec Public Player John Taylor posted a score of even-par 71 to accompany his 1-under-par score of 70 from Perth.

This resulted in a sudden-win playoff beginning on the par-4, 18th-hole at Gatineau. Both players had drives to the middle of the fairway inside the 150-yard mark. Mike left his approach shot just short of the green while John hit the back of the green leaving a lengthy putt. John rolled his ball to within approximately five feet of the cup and Mike chipped to a similar distance. After John missed his putt, Mike rolled his ball into the hole and celebrated with a Tiger-like fist pump.

Immediately after the prize presentations, Mike was asked about his win – “Finally I won a big OVGA Tournament. I shot 70 today and was pleased with my round. I just stayed steady. I had a good day yesterday at Perth where we had our Intersection round, so I had a sense of that course.”

Finishing in a tie for third place with two-day total scores of 148 in the Championship were Algonquin’s Andre Barbe (72-76) and 2016 OVGA Senior Champion from Rivermead Larry Morin (76-72).

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